George Washington University Hospital joined American University and George Washington University earlier this week in announcing a 20-year pact to fuel their campuses with solar energy, a deal that also highlights another approach to getting health care costs under control: sustainability.

Not the kind of “we’re going green” sustainability that’s been en vogue for business over the past decade — ahem, green roofs — but the far-less-sexy tricks behind the scenes that could generate real cost savings.

“We are looking at how we can be more affordable from a pricing standpoint,” said Barry Wolfman, CEO and managing director of GW Hospital.

The hospital joined the universities' efforts to meet energy sustainability commitments with the District, agreeing to purchase 52 megawatts of solar photovoltaic power — enough to power half the energy needs for the two universities and a third of the hospital’s needs — from Duke Energy Renewables over the next two decades.

“This will greatly accelerate our progress toward the carbon neutrality target we had earlier set for 2025,” said GW University President Steven Knapp.

GW Hospital will get price stability that could save up to $1 million over the life of the 20-year contract, Wolfman said. It’s not a ton of money in the grand scheme of the hospital’s annual spending, but it’ll make a dent, he said.

At the same time, the hospital has begun a retro-commissioning, evaluating all of the energy systems of the building. Are the dampers closing when they need to? Are the climate control systems running as efficiently as they could be? Is the lighting sucking too much energy? Wolfman did not have an estimate of how much money the evaluation could save.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found an average retro-commissioning project, costing up to 30 cents per square foot, yielded an energy savings of 16 percent and had a payback of 1.1 years.

Wolfman said the efficiency efforts are part of a greater push launched last fall called the “Healthier, Happier” campaign. That effort aims to cut costs and improve the hospital’s environmental impact with smarter purchasing and energy efficiency, while focusing on healthier food options and safer chemicals.

“It’s about economics and being part of something greater than ourselves,” Wolfman said.